Artists Books:

• Overview for Artist Book Gallery
• The Anatomy Lesson: Unveiling The Fasciculus Medicinae
• From The Anatomy Lesson:
• The Anatomy Lesson: The Slow Death of Rose
• The Anatomy Lesson: The Sudden Death of Eddy
• The Anatomy Lesson: Newborns
• The Anatomy Lesson: The Dead
• Alphabet of Bones: Published in Germany
• Alphabet of Bones: Nameroom
• Alphabet of Bones: Three Cages
• Alphabet of Bones: Into Flight
• Alphabet of Bones: Miniature of Alphabet of Bones
• From Public Projects
• Before 2000
• Publications

...In The Anatomy Lesson: Unveiling the Fasciculus Medicinae, there are two parallel streams of visually representing the body: ten woodcuts reproduced from the famous Fasciculus Medicinae, the first printed book with anatomical illustrations, and the cycle of ten drawings by Cutler-Shaw in response to those beautifully-rendered woodcuts. The fifteenth-century illustrations signal the shift from Medieval symbolism to Renaissance humanist thought. Cutler-Shaw's drawings investigate the contemporary transition from directly observing the corporeal self to technological proxies.

The Scope of the Book This publication was sparked by Joyce Cutler-Shaw's invitation to participate in the 1995 Smithsonian ‘Science and the Artist's Book' exhibition. An artist, poet, and scholar, her response to the Fasciculus Medicinae includes poetry and prose as well as drawing. Her texts for each of the ten main sections of the book accompany reproductions of the Ketham medical treatises in Latin. Excerpts from the Latin, newly translated into English, are also provided. We are especially pleased to offer new scholarly contributions written specifically for each section by the following distinguished authors: Harm Beukers, Angela Dillon Bussi, Peter Murray Jones, Katharine Park, Bettyann Kevles, Tony North, and Barbara Stafford. The Introduction is by Dr. William Shupbach of The Wellcome Library, in London, which has provided their fine copy for use in our reproductions.

The Format of the Book Each of the ten main sections for The Anatomy Lesson includes a four-page spread that opens to forty inches wide. Featured is a photogravure of Cutler-Shaw's drawing, printed by Jon Goodman. Plate size matches the reproductions from Fasciculus Medicinae (117/8 by 77/8 inches). Printed letterpress by Robin Price on handmade paper, the book is bound by Daniel E. Kelm. The cover features a hologram created at DuPont Authentication Systems. Please note that minor design changes occur prior to publication. Fifty copies; 96 pages; 14 by 10 inches.

About the Artist Since 1991, Joyce Cutler-Shaw has been Artist-In-Residence/Visiting Scholar at the School of Medicine, University of California, San Diego. She has also been studying great medical collections and museums of anatomy in U.S. and Europe. She writes, ‘To explore across the disciplines of art and medicine is to discover the intersections of art and medical science as an arena for new forms of body representation.... My project includes an investigation of the history of anatomy as a visual history of body imaging and the life cycle: how we are seen and how we see ourselves.'